Manchester City Women opened their WSL campaign looking to recover from their defeat in the Women’s Community Shield away to last season’s Women’s Championship winners Aston Villa.
The first half was punctuated by defensive mishaps from Villa as in the sixth minute, a weak back pass was left to drift towards Villa keeper Sian Rogers before Manchester City’s Georgia Stanway would dispossess the goalkeeper and roll the ball into the empty net to open the scoring.
Aston Villa’s line up featured five new signings, and this could have contributed to the repeated communication errors at the back. City by comparison looked much more comfortable threading passes through, with Stanway and Janine Beckie combining wonderfully.
Stanway would double her tally and City’s lead on the 26-minute mark, another ill-advised back pass from Villa being raced onto by the City striker to slot home again
Villa undoubtedly ended the first half believing that they should have only been a goal behind. A chipped pass caught the City defence napping as Ramona Petzelberger would control the ball beautifully with her chest and strike the ball towards goal. Petzelberger’s effort was saved by Ellie Roebuck but Stine Larsen would drive in the rebound to seemingly claw a goal back for Villa.
The goal would not stand however, as it was ruled out for offside, a decision that was more than questionable on the replay as both Villa players that were involved in the goal were comfortably onside.
The second half was much more competitive between the two sides, with City continuing to display their passing prowess while Villa’s forwards were able to race in behind their opponents to challenge Roebuck between the sticks.
Sian Rogers was arguably met with more challenging shots in the second half but she would put on an admirable display, not looking shaken by her performance in the first half and making composed and well-timed saves to deny Beckie and Stanway.
England star Ellen White would replace Beckie and would have plenty of chances to put the game away for Manchester City, hitting the post and then the back of the net in the space of three minutes but being caught offside on both occasions.
Despite the loss, it was an encouraging performance for the WSL debutants. Minus the two lapses in defence, Villa had a goal unfairly disallowed and showed further potential up front, particularly behind the speed of players like Diana Silva.
In City’s case, they will look to performances like these to lift them above reigning champions Chelsea this season. City could also be bolstered by the rumoured potential signing of Lucy Bronze from Women’s Champions League winners Lyon.
When interviewed about her team’s performance, Georgia Stanway said, ‘It’s just good to get back out there and get going with the girls. Honestly, it’s not our best performance but if somebody would have given us two nil, we’d have took it and obviously it’s just a good start to build momentum from here so we’ll take the win’.
The Inbound Observer 